the single for Cinnamon Girl comes out on November 16th..now with the lack of airlay Prince gets these days its almost impossible for Prince to have a top 10 hit anymore just based on airplay....i was thinking maybe we can do what the fans of Clay Aiken did..they had some kinda campaign on his website to go out and buy his single i beleive it was called Sollitare and so many people bought the single when it came out it went all the way to #4 on the billboard hot 100 chart with virtually no radio airplay...i think Prince has a big enough fan base to do something similar...its not easy these days to do it because single sales dont count on the billboard charts as much as they used to (example Duran Duran's sunrise was #3 in single sales but not even in the top 100 on the hot 100 chart) so it will take a pretty good number of single sales but i think we can do it..it would be nice to see Prince with one more hit single and say screw you to radio!

I agreee it could be done.

But, why pick Cinnamon Girl to do it with?


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[Edited 11/4/04 17:13pm]

Hmm... tis a challenge. U see, many dont care for the song too much!

AsianBomb777 said:

because thats the only cd single in the U.S Prince has released for Musicology so we couldnt have done it with the others

after reading this article we would have to buy a TON of copies of Cinnamon Girl to make it to the top 10




"Once again, the Billboard "Hot 100" singles and tracks chart is faced with the issue of whether strong sales should count for more than strong airplay. Once again, the reason for the question is Clay Aiken.

On the April 3, 2004 Billboard Hot 100 chart, Clay's song 'Solitaire' debuts at #4. This follows the official debut of Clay's new RCA CD single, 'The Way' / 'Solitaire', on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. SIngles Sales chart at #1 for the week ended March 21, 2004, with sales of 100,500 copies. The CD single had actually debuted on the sales chart the previous week at #93, due to the fact that some retailers sold copies of Clay's latest release prior to the official sale date of March 16.

The Billboard Hot 100 charts, which are based on a combination of airplay, including airplay across musical genres, paid downloads, album sales and CD single sales (if any, since there is no requirement for a track to be released on a single), couldn't ignore Clay's sales, as this is his second straight CD single release to debut with six-figure sales. His previous effort, the platinum CD single 'This Is The Night' / 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', sold 393,000 copies in its debut week, which earned it the top spot in Billboard's Hot 100 for the week ... and for the next week as well.

Because the Billboard charts rely on a vague mix of airplay and sales, both are given weight in the determination of #1. In the judgment of the Billboard chart department, Clay's high sales but relative lack of airplay caused Billboard to rank three tracks above it, even though one isn't even available on CD single. At #1 is 'Yeah!' by Usher (featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris), which ranked #8 in sales for the week for RCA's sister label Arista; at #2 is Chingy's 'One Call Away', which is not available on CD single; and at #3 is J-Kwon's 'Tipsy', which is #10 in sales. Although some of Clay's fans have been calling for even higher sales of the single to boost its chances of reaching #1, even higher sales without airplay might not be enough to help Clay's single move up.

Airplay also generally decides which track of a CD single is recognized on the charts. In Clay's case, airplay overwhelmingly favors 'Solitaire' over 'The Way' at this point, so Billboard lists just 'Solitaire' on its Hot 100 chart. The Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Singles Sales charts list both sides, since both are considered to be "A-sides" of the CD single.

Billboard's Hot 100 singles and tracks chart, with its emphasis on both sales and airplay, stands in contrast to its Billboard 200 albums chart, which is driven entirely by sales ... and which is 100% based on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Album Sales chart. However, it is consistent with the standards that Billboard has applied for singles since the 1950s, when it merged its separate airplay and sales charts to originally form the Hot 100 chart"

AsianBomb777 said:

I really like the idea behind this topic - getting Prince into the Pop Top 10. Unfortunately, Prince is faced with the same problem that many older artists face, which is appealing to the millions of teenagers that drive the Billboard Top 40 chart. Anyone over 30 usually becomes the age of the people that the kids are "rebelling" against. The Pop station DJ's know this, and are reluctant to play music from anyone outside that kiddy demographic. Combine this with the political views behind the song and video, and you can imagine how uphill a battle it's going to be for Cinnamon Girl to get radio time.

Personally, I like the song and the video for CG, and love the entire Musicology album. However, I think that Prince's strategy should be to release the songs on the album that are R&B oriented, since those (R&B) stations still play his (R&B) songs. By strengthening his R&B\Urban following, he will eventually CROSSOVER onto other stations and then get the megahit Top 10 pop song. It's all about airplay. Call My Name was a great start, and became a hit song! Millions of all ages heard it and it did well on some of the charts (R&B and Urban AC). By consistently putting out successful songs, the Pop stations will be forced to play him again, just like they were forced to over 20 years ago. On The Couch, Dear Mr. Man, and Reflections would definitely do well on the Urban and Urban AC charts, get lots of airplay, and keep Prince in the public eye. For instance, I'm certain the On the Couch would go to #1 Urban AC and Top 5 R&B, which might give it enough legs to crossover into the Top 40 Pop chart.

This is my first post, so I apologize if I am babbling too much. Cool site. Thanks.

audience1 said:

welcome to the site

i agree it would be impossible to get Prince into the top 10 on airplay but i was pointing out that we could get him in just buy buying enough copies of the cd single on November 16th....btw i think it really sucks that the radio stations have a major say on what hits the top 20..it used to be if a single sold enough copies it could reach the top 40 with hardly any airplay..now everything is at the mercy of the radio programmers and it sucks and i think its a major reason why todays music is in the sad state that it is

Mazerati said:

I completely agree with you. I think that I understand why Prince has such apparent dislike for the way that radio is formatted today. As for my part, I also intend to buy the single, if only to hear the live version of Dear Mr. Man. I believe I heard that it's on the CG single (hopefully). I think I'll even call my local R&B radio station and ask them to play it, since I doubt they'll play Cinnamon Girl.

Hell, you can't buy what you can't find. I am seeing less and less singles in stores by any artist.